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| Blurring the lines, Man/Animal |
Let's talk about shoes-
I love shoes. They have the ability to alter the way you feel while wearing them. I normally wear heels at a minimum of 4 inches and so I now have to regularly stretch my leg muscles or the next day it feels like I ran a marathon. <ouch> But it's worth the joy they give me. For the purpose of this article I took a personal count and WOOPS, these are frightening numbers:
Pumps-29
Boots-20
Sandals-20
Espadrille-1
Flip Flops-4
Runners-1
Wedge-0, gotta go shopping
One would imagine with 75 pairs of shoes they must be hanging from the rafters but when you see the collection there really does not appear to be that many, I was surprised by this number. Perhaps their neat and orderly manner of storage is a nice disguise.
A little shoe history-
Not until the last 100-150 years most of the world's population did not wear shoes due mainly in part to an economic problem. The industrial revolution with its modern equipment made it possible to mass produce anything allowing the cost of production and in turn the price to the consumer to drastically plummet downward. The oldest known leather shoe was discovered in 2008 in Armenia circa 3500 BC known as the Chalcolithic shoe pictured above.
During the Renaissance Venetian ladies displayed their social standing wearing the tallest shoes possible called "Chopines" originally introduced in Turkey. Some were found to be as tall as 30-inches allowing the wearer to be raised above the mud and filth from the streets. So ridiculous were these and women by the hundreds, accompanied by a servant of course, suffered tremendous injury from falling, that the Roman government outlawed their wearing. Scholars also speculate men in China and Turkey required their concubines to wear chopines making it difficult to flee the harem.
Pumps-29
Boots-20
Sandals-20
Espadrille-1
Flip Flops-4
Runners-1
Wedge-0, gotta go shopping
One would imagine with 75 pairs of shoes they must be hanging from the rafters but when you see the collection there really does not appear to be that many, I was surprised by this number. Perhaps their neat and orderly manner of storage is a nice disguise.
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| Chalcolithic, 3500 BC |
Not until the last 100-150 years most of the world's population did not wear shoes due mainly in part to an economic problem. The industrial revolution with its modern equipment made it possible to mass produce anything allowing the cost of production and in turn the price to the consumer to drastically plummet downward. The oldest known leather shoe was discovered in 2008 in Armenia circa 3500 BC known as the Chalcolithic shoe pictured above.
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| Spanish Chopines, circa 1500 AD |
Today in modern times shoes are as important to good grooming as brushing one's teeth, or so it seems. My co-worker Kimmy has great fun with her shoes. During fall/winter she wears nothing but UGGs, in the spring/summer months she wears only Keds and flip-flops from Old Navy. What I really like is that no matter what clothes she is wearing, her kicks always compliment, she makes me smile. GO KIMMY!
If you are really into shoes, subscribe to a fashion blog written by a friend of mine Cori Taylor titled "Mama Knows" (click). She posts a "Shoe Of The Day" and they are always amazing. Can you imagine a ladies pump heel in the shape of a pistol? It's from design house Chanel, and she has it.
Everyone by now knows what '90210' stands for, but have you heard of '10022'?. Saks Fifth Avenue (click) in New York has a shoe collection so big, they boast it has their own zip code. Complete with two cafes, a VIP room and shoe repair service this is on my list to visit next time in New York City.
Go a little crazy, check the sites listed below for some virtual window shopping:
Neiman Marcus (click)
Saks Fifth Avenue (click)
Zappos (click)
Endless (click)
Net-A-Porter (click)
Just for Fun-
"How strange, when your father's wearing women's clothes and platform shoes, that a pair of loafers looks incredible." -Moon Unit Zappa
To readers looking for information on a cerebral level instead of a picture book here is a "Guide To Proper Shoe Fitting", what is your Shoe-IQ?
http://www.shoeiq.com/articles/how-to-fit-shoes
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| Chanel, circa 2009 |
Everyone by now knows what '90210' stands for, but have you heard of '10022'?. Saks Fifth Avenue (click) in New York has a shoe collection so big, they boast it has their own zip code. Complete with two cafes, a VIP room and shoe repair service this is on my list to visit next time in New York City.
Go a little crazy, check the sites listed below for some virtual window shopping:
Neiman Marcus (click)
Saks Fifth Avenue (click)
Zappos (click)
Endless (click)
Net-A-Porter (click)
Just for Fun-
"How strange, when your father's wearing women's clothes and platform shoes, that a pair of loafers looks incredible." -Moon Unit Zappa
"I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty." -Imelda Marcos
To readers looking for information on a cerebral level instead of a picture book here is a "Guide To Proper Shoe Fitting", what is your Shoe-IQ?
http://www.shoeiq.com/articles/how-to-fit-shoes
